Dr. Adrian Knapp
M.A. Philosophy, University of Innsbruck
Ph.D. University of Leeds
Office: Seton 567
Email: adrian.knapp@msvu.ca
I have been teaching a range of first- and third-year courses at the Mount and Saint Mary’s University in English, History, Education, Writing, as well as Irish and Atlantic Canada Studies. I have also been tutoring graduate and undergraduate students at the SMU Writing Centre for several years.
Teaching and Research Interests:
Eighteenth-century British literature and culture, early black writing in Britain, slavery and slave resistance in eighteenth-century and contemporary British literature, British pop music & culture
Selected Publications:
Edited Collections
Pallua, Ulrich, Adrian Knapp and Andreas Exenberger, eds., (Re)Figuring Human Enslavement: Images of Power, Violence and Resistance, Edition Weltordnung – Religion – Gewalt, 5 (Innsbruck: Innsbruck University Press, 2009).
Book Chapters
‘The Theatre “Has Power – The Power to Move”: Aspects of Social Change in George Colman’s and Paul Leigh’s Inkle and Yarico’, in Slavery: Histories, Fictions, Memory, 1760-2007, ed. by Franca Dellarosa (Napoli: Liguori Editore, 2012), pp. 223-244.
‘“using doom and horror to reaffirm life”: Guilt and Victimhood in Uwem Akpan’s “My Parents’ Bedroom”’, in Responsibility to Protect. Peacekeeping, Diplomacy, Media, and Literature Responding to Humanitarian Challenges, ed. by Ursula Mathis-Moser (Innsbruck: Innsbruck University Press, 2012), pp. 289-306.
‘“to turn from warfare to the arts of peace”: Makanna as Antidote to Xenophobic Violence?’, in Afrika – Kontinent der Extreme?, ed. by Andreas Exenberger, Edition Weltordnung – Religion – Gewalt, 9 (Innsbruck: Innsbruck University Press, 2011), pp. 169-190.
‘Resisting Humanitarian Romanticism?: Thomas Pringle’s “Pangola: An African Tale”’, in (Re)Figuring Human Enslavement: Images of Power, Violence and Resistance, ed. by Ulrich Pallua, Adrian Knapp and Andreas Exenberger, Edition Weltordnung – Religion – Gewalt, 5 (Innsbruck: Innsbruck University Press, 2009), pp. 21-44.
Peer-Reviewed Articles
‘“Niall Quigley – Slave Owner, Slave Trader, Slave, Slave Stealer, Professional Witness”: Liquid Agential Memory in Zakes Mda’s Cion’, Ex Plus Ultra, 2 (2010), n. pag.
‘Three Children’s Critical Perspectives on Aspects of the Contemporary East African Social “Web of Relationships”: Uwem Akpan’s Say You’re One of Them’, Postcolonial Text, 5.3 (2009), n. pag.
Forthcoming
Invited contributions to The Cambridge Guide to the Eighteenth-Century Novel, 1660-1820, ed. by April London (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press):
• Anon., The West-Indian; or, The Brothers, 3 vols (Dublin: John Cumming, and A. R. Newman & Co, 1820)
• Arnold, Samuel James, The Creole; or, The Haunted Island, 3 vols (London: C. Whittingham, 1796)
• Beuvius, Adam, Henrietta of Gerstenfeld, 2 vols (Dublin: 1786 [vol 1]; London: William Lane, 1787 [vol 1] and 1788 [vol 2])
• Earle, William, Obi; or, The History of Three-Fingered Jack (London: Earle and Hemet, 1800)
• Lambert, C.D.L., The Adventures of Cooroo, A Native of the Pellew Islands (Norwich: Stevenson and Matchett, 1805)
• Lavallée, Joseph, The Negro Equalled by Few Europeans, 3 vols (London: G. G. J. and J. Robinson, 1790)
• Marshall, Edmund, Edmund and Eleonora; or, Memoirs of the House of Summerfield & Gretton, 2 vols (London: John Stockdale, 1797)
• Picquenard, Jean-Baptiste, Zoflora; or, The Generous Negro Girl, 2 vols (London: Lackington, Allen and Co., 1804)
• Sansay, Leonora, Zelica, The Creole; A Novel, 3 vols (London: William Fearman, 1820)
• Walker, George, The Travels of Sylvester Tramper through the Interiors of the South of Africa (London: G. Walker, 1816)
Recent Conference Presentations and Talks:
‘“a life of comfortless voluptuousness”: Vice and Virtue in John Moore’s Zeluco’, Matters and Materials of Life, 1660-1820: CSECS Annual Conference, Montreal, 18-21 October 2023.
‘Experiencing London: Pierce Egan’s Life in London’, Experiencing Modernity; Modernity of Experimentation: CSECS Annual Conference, Ottawa, 26-29 October 2022.
‘Class and Entertainment in Pierce Egan’s Life in London’, Translation and Appropriation in the Long Eighteenth Century: CSECS Annual Conference, Winnipeg, 13-16 October 2021.
‘Rumour and Rebellion in Andrea Levy’s The Long Song’, Transcultural Movements: Memories, Writings, Embodiments, EACLALS Triennial Conference, Cardiff University, 28-30 June 2021.
‘The Ethics of Pugilistic Entertainment in Memoirs of the Life of Daniel Mendoza’, Ethic(s) of/in the Enlightenment: CSECS Annual Conference, Quebec City, 16-19 October 2019.
‘Curiosity, Religion and Self in A Narrative of the Most Remarkable Particulars in the Life of James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, An African Prince, As related by himself’, ACCUTE Annual Conference, University of British Columbia, 1-4 June 2019.
‘Religion, Wonder and Fame in A Narrative of the Most remarkable Particulars in the Life of James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, An African Prince’, Wonder in the Eighteenth Century: CSECS Annual Conference, Niagara Falls, 10-13 October 2018.
‘“not knowing the manners & Customs of my Native Place”: Philip Quaque at Cape Coast Castle’, ACCUTE Annual Conference, University of Regina, 26-29 May 2018.
‘Errant Laughter in Ignatius Sancho’s Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, An African’, Speaker Series, Department of English, Dalhousie University, 9 February 2018.
‘The Pitfalls of “a very Liberal Education”: Philip Quaque’s “Arduous Mission” on the Cape Coast’, From Cosmopolitans to Cosmopolitanisms: CSECS Annual Conference, University of Toronto, 18-22 October 2017.
‘Sentiment and Laughter in Ignatius Sancho’s Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, An African’, ACCUTE Annual Conference, Ryerson University, 27-30 May 2017.
‘The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African (1789)’, invited lecture as part of the course ‘ENGL 2307: Literary Traditions in English’ (instructor Prof. Deborah Kennedy), Saint Mary’s University, 16 January 2017.
‘The Post-Slave Condition in Olaudah Equiano’s The Interesting Narrative’, The Stokes Seminar, Dalhousie University, 18 November 2016.
‘Aberrant Femininity in John Gabriel Stedman’s Narrative of a Five Years’ Expedition against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam and Robert Bage’s Hermsprong; or, Man as He Is Not’, Secret/s & Surveillance: CSECS Annual Conference, Queens University, 26-30 October 2016.